Written for LSU families. Written by the LSU community.

How To Support Your Tiger During Finals!

Meet Tori Callais! Tori is a Women and Gender Studies Major with a Social Work and Sociology Minor. She is from Denham Springs Louisiana and will be serving as the 2015 Orientation Team Leader! Tori is also involved with LSU Ambassadors, LSU Women’s Chorale, and NSCS.

You start to notice your student is drinking an excess of coffee, they begin to take on the smell of caffeine and fear, they have currently set up house in the library, they are beginning to only wear pajamas in public, you see their social media accounts flood with hashtags like #clubmid #finalsprobs #letthecurvebeinmyfavor and you may or may not have heard from them in a couple days…what on earth could this mean? It means it is Finals Week at LSU.

Finals week is the one thing in between a relaxing holiday break and finishing out the semester. As much as the images of endless sleep and countless home cooked meals over break are in every student’s thoughts, they sometime are not enough to take the edge off the “week that must not be named.” So what do you do as a Parent to make sure your student is less stressed throughout this week?

Send positive messages to your students

Hours upon hours of studying tends to lead to some pretty thorough procrastination. Every Facebook page from their best friend in pre-k to their friends in college have been scrutinized and inspected and some throwback pictures have made its way to everyone’s’ newsfeed. With that being said, your student is more or less checking their social media accounts and/or phones frequently to take a break from the daunting task of studying. Leaving a word of encouragement on their Facebook wall or shooting them a meaningful text can help to alleviate some stress from their plates. Seeing positive words can really push a student to keep working hard when the week begins winding down.

Send care packages (through the residential halls/apartments)

Some days can seem like the end of the world during Finals, especially if it is your first college finals week. Walking back to your room in a residential hall and finding that you have a surprise package from a loved one can turn a bad day into a good one in less than a second. LSU Residential Life offers care packages during finals week in order to help family members support their student in midst of their studies. On Residential Life’s website are step by step instructions on how to send a package to their particular hall or apartment on campus (see below for directions). Opening a package full of candy, cards, maybe a stuffed animal or two can help stress levels decrease for a good measure of time. It adds a light to the end of the finals tunnel!

Send some home cooked food

My personal favorite that my parents make sure to help me out with during finals is home cooked food. That’s right, I said HOME cooked food. My dad sends me “rations” as we like to say throughout finals so that even while I’m studying day and night, I still have a little piece of home with me to comfort me. They are all in microwavable Tupperware that fit perfectly in my mini fridge, and boy does it come in handy when days seem to last longer than before. The dining halls do an excellent job of preparing top quality food especially during heavy testing periods, but sometimes the smell of my dad’s gumbo is enough to make me forget about that calculus final that is coming up.

Finals week can seem like a lifetime or a blink of an eye, but having loved ones support you in some way throughout the process is a feeling that really does stay with you throughout college. And if your students ever forget to say it, thank each of y’all for constant love and reassurance that we can do this!

Directions to send care packages to your Tiger on Campus in the Residence Halls & Apartments:

All on-campus residents will be assigned an LSU Box at Ricoh Mail & Printing Services in the LSU Student Union, and the charge is posted on the student fee bill.

To claim a box and key, visit Ricoh in room 101 in the LSU Student Union. This box will be able to receive both regular mail and packages. The student’s name and mailbox number must be on all mail and packages. Students will receive a pick up notification via e-mail when a package arrives and should bring a picture ID to claim packages.

To send mail and packages to an LSU Box, please follow this address format:Student’s Name
101 LSU Student Union Bldg.

LSU Box # _ _ _ _ Baton Rouge, LA 70803

Residential communities will accept deliveries (from local businesses only) of fresh cut flowers, cut fruit bouquets, or cookie bouquets. For the safety and security of residents, the residential front desk staff is unable to verify, identify, or disseminate the contact information (including phone numbers) of specific residents. If the delivery agency requires a signature or direct contact with the receiving resident, the aforementioned student’s phone number must have already been provided with the order by the ordering party. After receiving delivery, the front desk worker will notify the resident through their LSU e-mail account that they have a package to pick up at the front desk. The Department of Residential Life is not responsible for lost packages.

Use the following address format when receiving perishables (ONLY those mentioned above):